Mr. Biddles

A funny picture book about friendship, in the tradition of Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad. Mr. Biddles is a cat inventor, and Hobson is a lobster that is left on his front porch. An odd pair indeed, but when Hobson joins Biddles in the lab (where he invented not only his catnip diffuser but also his automatic mail retriever!), they discover that Hobson has a gift: two super-useful claws. Mr. Biddles always needed help in the lab, but he hadn’t known how much until Hobson came along. The two enjoy one another’s company and work well side by side, but one day, Hobson begins to miss home. Biddles badly wants to invent a way to get his friend home safely. But how? Hobson is from the faraway coast, and can travel only in five gallons of water! Kristine A. Lombardi meticulously created convincing worlds for both Mr. Biddles and Hobson using collaged ephemera from years of collecting old receipts, postcards, photos, diner bills, business cards, blueprints, and everything else you can think of!